Coal Ash Lawsuit

If you think you have been injured as a result of living near a coal fired power plant or a coal ash pond, we may be able to help you recover damages.

The health and property of many people from around the country have been damaged because they live near a coal-powered electricity generation plant. The plants burn pulverized coal to create steam. The steam runs turbines to create electricity; toxic coal fly ash is a combustible waste byproduct of this production process.

The nation’s power plants produce 130 million tons of coal ash every year.

Lawsuits Seek Compensation for People Who Claim Injuries

The contaminated fly ash, which is collected in retention ponds, has overflowed retaining walls or seeped through underground walls into the ground water of neighboring communities. Many lawsuits are being filed because of the environmental and health disasters created by these overflows. The poisonous ash is endangering the health of nearby residents, animals and wildlife, and acres of private property and farmland.

An environmental disaster occurred in December 2008 in Kingston, Tenn., when the wall of the nation’s largest coal ash pond gave way, releasing a billion gallons of toxic sludge to flow over roads, damage homes, bury a railway, and rupture a major gas line. Across the country there are nearly 500 retention ponds.

The Environmental Protection Agency had announced it would publish its new regulations last December, however, the report has yet to be released.

Potential Dangers Associated with Toxic Spills

The toxic spills and ground water seepage threaten the health of people living nearby. The coal fly ash contains at least ten toxins including selenium, arsenic, lead and other heavy metals, that may cause or aggravate:

lung disease
kidney disease
cancer
gastrointestinal disease
birth defects
heart disease
diabetes

Facing South, an online magazine of the Institute for Southern Studies, reported in a Feb. 25, 2010, article a finding of 31 more locations of coal ash ponds in 14 states, which brings “to over 100 the number of U.S. sites where damages from coal ash have been confirmed.”

“Beneficial reuse” of coal ash also is being questioned. Well water near the Tran-Ash Landfill in Benton County, Tenn., contained mercury levels more than six times federal drinking water standards. The Swift Creek structural fill site in Rocky Mount, N.C., used coal ash as landfill from six power plants in North Carolina and Virginia. The landfill covers 25 acres that include wetlands.

The 2008 Kingston, Tenn., disaster sparked a flurry of lawsuits and national debate, pitting representatives of industry against environmentalists. Many U.S. senators and congressmen from coal-ash producing states are sending letters to the President, asking for current regulations to remain unchanged

Do You Qualify To File a Coal Ash Lawsuit?

Anyone living in the region of a coal ash pond or landfill containing coal ash should be aware of the hazards these toxic sites pose to their health, property and wildlife. Compensation may be available for the injured. If you are concerned about your health, or believe you may have been harmed by a coal ash pond, contact our lawyers to see if you qualify to seek compensation.

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Coal Ash Lawsuit

Lawsuits Seek Compensation for People Who Claim Injuries

Potential Dangers Associated with Toxic Spills

Do You Qualify To File a Coal Ash Lawsuit?

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